The Green Tea's Guide to Breaking Off an Engagement

The main story is complete. Extra chapters are being updated:

Lu Yanyou had known since he was a child that he would one day marry the Lin family's daughter, a girl who couldn't do a thing for herself.

He had never given Lin Shuyou a second glance, thinking of her as nothing more than a pretty ornament to keep at home.

But Lin Shuyou seemed oblivious, always coming to see him day and night, gentle and attentive, hoping to make him fall for her.

One day, he finally couldn't take it anymore. He said something cruel to the delicate girl and stormed off.

Through the car window, he couldn't help remembering the tear in Lin Shuyou's eye as he had just rushed out.

Lu Yanyou rubbed his brow. Never mind. What had she done wrong? She was simply too in love with him.

+

Lu Yanyou turned around and hurried back. Just as he was about to open Lin Shuyou's bedroom door, he saw her through the window. The girl who had been red-eyed and frail moments ago now had half an apple in her mouth, one leg crossed over the other, and was sprawled beneath a down comforter.

She looked smug as she bragged to someone on the phone:

"Your Shuyou never screws up when she makes a move. Don't worry, I'll get out of this engagement in no time!"

-Lu Yanyou: ...

-So she'd been acting for me this whole time?

After turning eighteen, Lin Shuyou had only two goals:

One: Get out of her engagement to Lu Yanyou as soon as possible.

Two: If she couldn't, then hang on until she turned twenty-three.

The inheritance agreement held by her uncles said that if she graduated from university at twenty-three, she could inherit her parents' estate.

She played the part of the green-tea schemer Lu Yanyou hated most, putting up with everything until her twenty-third birthday. Then she packed her bags in the middle of the night, only to be stopped by a figure at the door.

-+"Are you sure you want to leave?" Lu Yanyou leaned against the table with his arms crossed and tossed a stack of agreements behind him onto it.

"Lin Shuyou graduates from university at twenty-three..."

"I know. I'm about to inherit a fortune!" Lin Shuyou said proudly, cutting him off.

Lu Yanyou gave a mocking smile and curled his lips. "Lin Shuyou can inherit the estate if she graduates from university at twenty-three and marries into the Lu family. Are you sure you want to leave?"

Lin Shuyou: ...??

She picked up the agreement and checked it several times.

"Wait." She hurriedly called after him as he turned to go. "I think we still have room to negotiate."

Lu Yanyou put down the agreement and lazily leaned back on the sofa.

"Fine. Call me 'husband' first. Then I'll see how much room there is."

A sharp-tongued romantic who always reads too much into things VS a long-suffering expert at breaking off engagements+

--- Coming soon ---

A Dream in the Floating Capital

The day Nan Zhu met Jiang Yucheng, her father brought her before him. Her father fawned and bowed, addressing the man as Second Master Jiang.

Jiang Yucheng idly flipped through a script without even looking up. "Can you sing The Legend of the White Snake?"

Nan Zhu raised her voice to sing, her youthful voice trembling.

Her father left her behind, and she moved into the attic of a courtyard house in the wealthy Jiang family's neighborhood in the capital.

From the bamboo windows high above the ground, Nan Zhu watched Jiang Yucheng bring home famous actors and celebrated opera performers. Their songs drifted through the air as wine and sensuality filled the rooms.

Everyone knew that Second Master Jiang, a formidable figure in the capital's elite circles, loved the lilting songs of the female leads in traditional opera. Those hoping to curry favor sent him beautiful performers to feast his eyes on.

No one expected Second Master Jiang to bring home a young woman himself.

She was quiet and reserved, but her eyes were as clear as autumn water.

Once on stage, her flowing sleeves danced gracefully, and her singing was sorrowful without being tragic.

Jiang Yucheng sat behind a beaded curtain. He didn't even notice when the ash from his cigarette burned his hand. He thought of something someone had once said: "The qingyi is a dream, the dream of every man."

He nurtured her for three years.

On the day Nan Zhu left the attic of the Jiang family's courtyard house, she packed everything she owned into the sandalwood box Jiang Yucheng had specially made for her.

She had suffered enough because of him in this life. She had already repaid her father's debt. They were even, and would never see each other again.

Jiang Yucheng lowered his eyes and glanced at the things she had left behind. "She's got some backbone, but she's still too green. Not just anyone can make it in these capital circles."

He let her go, thinking she would come crawling back once she had been broken by the world.

But Nan Zhu kept her word and cut all ties with him.

Jiang Yucheng spent night after night unable to sleep, searching for the graceful turns and trembling sleeves he remembered.

On a whim, he bought a ticket to see the celebrated Nan Qingyi perform, but Nan Zhu ignored the thousand spectators and never took the stage.

Unable to contain his temper, Jiang Yucheng went backstage to the dressing room and found the woman he hadn't seen in so long. He gritted his teeth as he asked, "Nan Zhu, why aren't you going onstage?"

Nan Zhu traced her slender brows in the mirror and said coolly, "I told you, we won't see each other again."

"Second Master Jiang, I can't sing The White Snake for you anymore."

Powerful man of the capital's elite circles VS celebrated qingyi opera performer

Theme: Treat others sincerely